The package of bills would write into law recommendations from a report released by Attorney General Kamala Harris in September.

The report, titled "In School and On Track," says 30 percent of the state's elementary school students miss enough school each year to harm their academic performance.

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The report says about one million students were considered truant in the 2012-2013 school year, costing their school districts a combined $1.4 billion in funding the state distributes based on students' attendance.

The law defines truancy as being absent or arriving more than 30 minutes late without a valid excuse three times in a school year. Students who miss 10 percent of the school year without good reason are considered to be chronically truant, which experts say increases their risk of failing.

"It's very predictable that the elementary school truant will end up being a high school dropout," Harris said. "Eighty-two percent of the prisoners in the United States are high school dropouts. There's a direct connection between public education and public safety."

The legislation Harris is seeking would require schools to increase their reporting of truant students, which she said would help officials find ways to get them back in school.

"If we don't know what the problem is or where the problem is, we can't solve it," said Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, who is carrying one of the bills.

Of the million students considered truant during the last school year, Harris' report projected that 250,000 elementary school students missed 18 or more school days, or 10 percent of the school year. It found that 20,000 elementary school students missed at least 36 days of school.

Transportation cuts have made it difficult for many parents.

"Stop making cuts in school," said Marenda Sanford, the grandparent of a student at Bret Harte Elementary School, in Sacramento. "We used to have buses that would automatically pick you up. There’s a lot of poor people out here, and with all the programs being cut, what are parents supposed to do?"

Harris previously backed a bill passed in 2010 that lets prosecutors charge parents with misdemeanors, bringing up to a year in jail and $2,000 fine, if their children miss too much school.

That law is used sparingly, according to Harris' report, with district attorneys reporting prosecuting an average of three to six cases each year.

In Calaveras County, nearly one out of three students is a truant, while in San Joaquin and Nevada counties, the ratio is one out of four.

In El Dorado County, 24 percent of the students are truants, while the rates are nearly 21 percent in Yolo County and 20.3 percent in Sacramento County.

The Sacramento City Unified School District has launched a dropout prevention program that makes it cool to be in school.

"With this, you just need to be in school," said Ken McPeters, the dropout prevention specialist with the district.

Students with good attendance are rewarded with a T-shirt that says, "I got caught attending school."

"You get recognized -- you get a certificate for your parents," McPeters said.

The program also has given away some free bicycles and bus passes to students in need – and has shown promising results, with a 5 to 10 percent increase in attendance.

Harris and lawmakers carrying this year's bills said the earlier measure was designed not to turn parents into criminals, but to give school and law enforcement officials a way to get parents' attention.

One bill proposed this year, AB2141, would require prosecutors to report to school officials the outcome of such legal referrals.

Among other bills:

- SB1107 would require the attorney general's office to file an annual report similar to the one Harris produced last year.

- AB1643 would require that every school district create a School Attendance Review Board including parents, teachers, administrators and law enforcement.

- AB1672 would require the review boards to collect and report more information about truant students.

- AB1866 would require the state Department of Education to collect attendance data.